Bootup computer to open vista

Solution
Yes, vista usually saves files on the hdd and will offer to start from scratch in total emergencies. if not recoverable with known good media its probably hardware failure.

MC_K7

Distinguished
Did you try to boot in safe mode and use Windows system restore from there?

If your recovery disks don't work, you might have another alternative, most systems have a hidden recovery partition, check Compaq manual to see if you have one and how to access it.

When you say it won't restore computer, can you be more specific? How far are you going? Got any error message?

You could always contact HP/Compaq and ask for a replacement recovery disk in case it's a bad cd. But it's also possible you have a deeper problem like defective hardware in your computer that is preventing it from installing, so the problem might not be with the recovery cd itself.
 

MC_K7

Distinguished


???

No idea what you mean by that. Is it restoring or not? Any error message? Try to be more specific it's hard to help you if you don't give enough details.

Recovery disks should restore your OS to the same state it was when you first got the computer (factory install). Note that it's also destructive so you will loose any data you had on the disk.
 


Need details, why not? Is the disk running away from you and hiding under the bed because it does not want to do any work? Or are there errors that come up? How far does it get? Why are you doing the restore in the first place, the issue may be with the hard drive, or RAM or something else that a re-installation of Windows won't fix.